Marital Instability in an African Society: Exploring the Factors That Influence Divorce Processes in Ghana

Takyi, Baffour K.

doi:10.1080/00380237.2001.10571184

Cited by 67 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Marriage is essentially universal amongst the young but at the same time divorce is exceptionally common; average divorce rates are more than 40 percent in these countries (Bongaarts, Frank, and Lesthaeghe 1984;Reniers 2003;Takyi 2001). In the context of sub-Saharan Africa, the marital dissolution threat point is often realized.…”

Section: A Marital Property Law and Threat Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legal Origins and Female HIV

Anderson¹

2018

American Economic Review

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More than one-half of all people living with HIV are women and 80 percent of all HIV-positive women in the world live in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper demonstrates that the legal origins of these formerly colonized countries significantly determine current-day female HIV rates. In particular, female HIV rates are significantly higher in common law sub-Saharan African countries compared to civil law ones. This paper explains this relationship by focusing on differences in female property rights under the two codes of law. In sub-Saharan Africa, common law is associated with weaker female marital property laws. As a result, women in these common law countries have lower bargaining power within the household and are less able to negotiate safe sex practices and are thus more vulnerable to HIV, compared to their civil law counterparts. Exploiting the fact that some ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa cross country borders with different legal systems, we are able to include ethnicity fixed effects into a regression discontinuity approach. This allows us to control for a large set of cultural, geographical, and environmental factors that could be confounding the estimates. The results of this paper are consistent with gender inequality (the “feminization” of AIDS), explaining much of its prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa. (JEL I12, J15, J16, K11, K15, O15, O17)

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Section: A Marital Property Law and Threat Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legal Origins and Female HIV

Anderson¹

2018

American Economic Review

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“…Divorce is not legal for the majority of Filipinos, who are predominantly Catholic, but is legal for Muslim Filipinos. Religion, through its ideological and theological principles, may also influence the value people place in marriage (Takyi 2001). For instance, the Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines strongly opposes divorce and encourages its flock to resolve marital woes and keep their marriages intact.…”

Section: Explanatory Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Divorce and separation in the Philippines: Trends and correlates

Abalos¹

2017

DemRes

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BACKGROUNDThe Philippines is the only country in the world, aside from the Vatican, where divorce is not legal. Despite the lack of divorce law in the country and the high costs of obtaining an annulment, recent data shows that a growing number of Filipinos dissolve their marital unions, either legally or informally. OBJECTIVESI document the rise of union dissolution cases in the Philippines, and investigate the different factors associated with Filipino women's experience of union dissolution. METHODS Data is drawn RESULTSResults reveal that education, type of first union, and childhood place of residence are significantly associated with being divorced or separated among women in the Philippines. Filipino women with higher levels of education, those who were cohabiting without ever marrying in their first union, and those who were raised in urban settings have higher risks of experiencing union dissolution than their counterparts. Religion and ethnicity are also associated with union breakdown among Filipino women. CONTRIBUTIONThis paper demonstrates that the rise in union dissolution in the Philippines has not happened in isolation. It has to some extent been influenced by the changing character of union formation in the country, the prevailing legal system, a growing acceptance of divorce, increasing education for women, and increasing urbanization.

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“…L'infécondité (ou la sous-fécondité) est égale-ment un facteur important de divorce en Afrique (Takyi, 2001). Les familles africaines sont très attachées à l'enfant, la procréation est d'ailleurs la vocation première d'une union, en conséquence, l'infécondité du couple augmente le risque de divorce.…”

Section: Revue De La Littérature Et Hypothèsesunclassified